For the past decade, refining oil and gas in Kazakhstan has been the poor cousin of upstream activity. Most foreign investment has focused on oil exploration and extraction, while refining has relied largely on three antiquated refineries, the most recent opened in 1985.
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These are hectic days for Kazakhstan’s foreign and domestic policy makers.
Along with the free trade 2010 Customs Union and later Common Economic Space (CES) agreements linking Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus, the three ex-Soviet trading partners are also part of the Free Trade Agreement, signed in St Petersburg in 2011, forming closer trading partnerships with eight other CIS states.
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Love him or loathe him fictional buffoon Borat has been good news for Kazakhstan’s tourism industry.
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Often the best way to gauge a country’s growing political and economic influence is by checking out its arts events.
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In a week when the social media in-crowd went frantic about new product launches by Twitter, Periscope and Facebook, back on planet earth people remained blissfully unaware of the modifications taking place in their smartphone apps.
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